So, you may or may not know that the next version of Windows (Windows 8) is going to be designed from the ground up to be used as a touch screen OS. Not that you couldn’t use a mouse and keyboard with it, just that it will be designed to use those touch features we’ve all come to expect in our pockets. In fact it looks a lot like Windows Phone. My initial thought on this was that it was going to be Microsoft’s way to get back into the tablet market. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Windows based tablet and I’m sure that the folks at Microsoft would like to change that.

But something else occurred to me. Why would they change everything about their OS for the tablet market? Sure many would love to have their desktop apps on their tablet but that’s not going to be that large of a part of their business. Then it hit me. And it’s so simple. It connects a number of different Microsoft products and strategies they’ve had. It pulls everything together and will change the way most people use computers.

Kinect.

Microsoft has, for years, been trying to integrate in TV with your computer, to make your computer integrated into your entertainment. And this will do it. I’m certain of it.

In case you don’t know, Kinect is the system for motion capture used on the Xbox 360. It’s used to allow the player to “act out” the action on the screen rather than press buttons to achieve the desired results.

Imagine you’re sitting in your living room with you big TV (I think everyone but me has one these days) and you want to check Facebook. You pause what you’re watching (live, recorded, or streaming) move over to the OS and by waving your hands around like you have an enormous tablet in the air in front of you, you pull up Facebook, maybe your email, check the weather, then right back to what you were watching. Everything becomes seamless in one place, and in a very cool, sci-fi sort of way.

I hate to quote Prince but, “I’ve seen the future and it will be… I’ve seen the future and it works”